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(IVAR) - Final Report - Strategic Environmental Research and ...

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DRP source data from all three radars. Our interest in plots was its ability to first detect<br />

tightly circling raptors, an activity pattern not always discernable with the tracking<br />

algorithms that had a tendency to produce more reliable tracks when targets moved in a<br />

more predictable less circuitous flight pattern<br />

Technology Implementation<br />

2. Provide a brief summary of how this technology was implemented at your airport<br />

Avian radar systems were installed <strong>and</strong> implemented at SEA to provide what we believed<br />

was a reasonable level of observational coverage for detecting most bird activity on <strong>and</strong><br />

near SEA. Port <strong>and</strong> the USDA wildlife biologists critically evaluated this technology to<br />

gain a better underst<strong>and</strong>ing of how avian radars might affect our real-time situational<br />

awareness of airport wildlife hazards <strong>and</strong> our ability to respond to them more rapidly than<br />

we normally could without radar to provide us with bird movement information.<br />

Although two observers in one vehicle was atypical for normal operations on the airfield,<br />

this was done to better explore the range of technological benefits the radars might<br />

provide <strong>and</strong> to maintain a high level of safety while driving on the airfield.<br />

From 15-17 June a total of 10 hours, during 7 sessions, were expended actively watching<br />

the remote DRP display. Evaluations of the Accipiter AR1 radar were made<br />

predominantly using three methods:<br />

Early Notification – As near real-time “bird” tracks were viewed remotely on the DRP<br />

display, we drove to the geographic location of those detections to determine if birds<br />

were still present. If present, we determined if the bird activity was sufficiently<br />

hazardous for control actions to be taken. The automated sense <strong>and</strong> alert capabilities of<br />

the DRP software <strong>and</strong> Accipiter’s Track Viewer software are currently undergoing<br />

further evaluation <strong>and</strong> were not part of this survey.<br />

Observational Confirmation – After areas of high bird use were visually ascertained we<br />

drove the vehicle to that location <strong>and</strong> parked. Additional visual observations of birds<br />

were compared with the real-time plots <strong>and</strong> tracks information for comparison <strong>and</strong><br />

potential confirmation.<br />

Display Latency Determination – To better interpret the meaning of “real-time” radar<br />

information shown on the remote displays <strong>and</strong> underst<strong>and</strong> its usefulness for airport utility,<br />

we conducted several trials to determine display latency. The DRP initially displays<br />

targets as plots (green unfilled circles). Once confirmed, these detections are displayed as<br />

tracks (red solid rectangles with a directional pointer). The DRP has the beneficial<br />

feature of displaying up to 120 of the previous tracks <strong>and</strong> plots, detections that slowly<br />

faded <strong>and</strong> darken with time. While the GEC is currently not designed to display plots or<br />

historic detections in the real-time display mode, it has the advantage of displaying tracks<br />

in three colors, one for each radar, <strong>and</strong> the ability to rapidly playback the tracks from the<br />

previous hour.<br />

Multiple trials were conducted to measure <strong>and</strong> compare radar display latency values for<br />

both the DRP <strong>and</strong> GEC displays under two scenarios that might reflect typical bird<br />

behavior: (1) l<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> takeoff activity <strong>and</strong> (2) “fly passing” behavior where the bird<br />

flies over the airfield in a more consistent direction <strong>and</strong> rate of speed. Our vehicle was<br />

348

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